Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-03-07

these hurtful provisions, but until dema-
gogues and politicians have ceased to re-
ceive patronage on the hullibaloo that
they mean to protect the children's grass,
we may expect but little relief.
Unite and douol your energies, send
representatives to the seat of government
and fight for the protection of your inter-
ests until the desired results have been
accomplished. Instruct your represen-
tatives in Congress to demand such inter
state legislation as will protect your in
terests beyond the territorial limits of the
state.
The well known Reagan bill, be it'said
to the credit of the nation, has at last re-
ceived the Endorsement of Congress and
is now an existing law. In my judgment
this law, if properly enforced, will re-
| lieve your interests of the severest bur-
dens imposed by the existing system of
railroad pooling. At all events it is step
in the right direction, and it
would doubtless be well to give
| it a fair test before attempting
other innovations. But if all OF these
evils could be removed you would still,
when your cattle reach the market, be a.
the mercy of g few syndicates who initiate
and depress the markets at will. A few
millions of organized capital in the mar
keting cities dictate the per cent. to be
realized on hundreds of millions invested
in the production of cattle.
The surest way to be relieved from sub
| lection to the influences of those rings
would be to establish home market by
the construction of dressing and canning
establishments in your own state.
Lend your undivided influence, and
| literally contribute your money to make
a success of the movement set on foot
at your late state convention. If you
succeed in that enterprise and perfect ar
engagements to slaughter at home one
half or three -fOurlhs of the beef raised in
the state, the saving to your interests
will simply be enormous. Why such &C
/ ton has not been taken sooner is in real
! ity matter of surprise. All Of the ele-
ments necessary and requisite TO insure
success exist in this state in great album
dance. Fuel reasonably cheap, water in
great abundance and provender enough
raised in Central Texas to fatten every
beef in the state.
The facilities for transportation by rail
are adequate, and the principal remain
| ing obstruction is deep water
1t occurs to me that this could be Sc
cured through the pittance allowed by
the national government, literally aided
by the state and assisted by cooperative
action on the part of two or three indus
tries in Texas. Colonel Hughes in his
Dallas speech tells US that with twenty
five feet of water on the Texas coast the
saving in freight from the cattle interest
alone would in five years be enough to
pay the cost of deep water, estimating it
on the Eads plan. This enormous saving,
taken in connection with the fact that the
interest of about ten states and territories
demand deep water on the Texas coast,
will certainly be productive of some en-
ergetiC action looking to the accomplish
ment of this result.
1t would not be profitable to elaborate
upon those causes. II has been done by
able men. You have felt their effect.
Evidences of ruin and Of desOlation are
scattered throughout the land. They have
supported the hand that has Swallowed
your interest for the last four years. They
have preyed upon your vitals until many
of you have "Yielded up the ghost"
They have forged the letters which have
bound you to the rock while the waves OF
adversely swept from you the accumula,
lions of years of toll. They are still how,
ering above you like Bosom of destruc,
ton, portending an evil, the extent Of
which the future alone Can determine.
But this is not all; it is not even the
worst. In the language of the eastern
queen, "the half has not yet been told"
True, the enumerated burdens have had
their effect, but l will tell you that nine.
tY-nine one-hundredths of your individual
troubles spring from another source
Ninety pine out of every 100 of your
ba0krupts, whose paper is hawked on the
streets at % to so cents on the dollar
were not brought to it through the agen,
cies l have mentioned. Their condition
is the immediate and direct result of reCk.
less extravaganza, inat'ention to bust
ness, wildcat speculation, and the in
dorsement of every piece of paper
presented for YOUR signature.
Here lies the secret of all the trouble
You could have survived the general de-
preston in business, but you could not
survive your own extravaganza and neg
lect of business, and pay the debts of
other men, besides.
In prosperous times you seemed to vie
with each other as to who should spend
the most money. 1t was a perfect race.
l knew one of your number, who, for the
want of something else more expensive
or extravagant to do, to give away a
hundred dollars worth of hats in one
evening. A jeweler in Sherman told one
of your representatives who is
now seated on the floor of this
convention, and myself, not more
than twelve months ago, that in the flush
times of 'S3 and 'S4 he sold to the Gaines
vile stock men about $500 worth of
diamonds alone per day. At that rate,
in one months time, and with only one
Ijeweler, you invested S45, 200 in the
diamond industry alone. II there was
another ieweler in that city, and he had
the same volume of trade this one had,
and the trade held up, at the expiration
of twelve months you would have 81 $780,
600 invested in this very profitable
character of industry. Years do not
have to repeat themselves until such
senseless extravaganza is felt in any
business.
You left your ranches and moved TO
town, built fine residences, dressed your
family in silks and satins, and lived as
though your purse strings were as endless
as eternity itself.
| After enumerating few instances of
eXorbitant prices paid for ranch bosses.
and other useless expenses, followed by
q sarcastic vein of humor, Colonel Legett